What would you rather have for rock??
 

Hey guys,

I'm going to be starting a small 10gal at work in my office. It's all set up, however I'm just debating on what to do for liverock. Should I just go to a LFS and pick up some rock like I did with my 20gal? Or, should I order the nice white rock that BRS has???

What would you guys do in my shoes?

Since it's a 10gal, I won't be able to get very much to help with algae, other than a basic cleanup crew. I'm going to keep this an LPS ans softie tank, which will be under the spare mazarra Maxspect LED's that I had laying around.

If you are talking about the Pukani rock from BRS I would talk to Eli who sells the same stuff from Calgary.

I personally like dry rock.

I'm also a dry rock fan

I would never use anything but "real" live rock.

Easy with that over zealous opinion :lol:

I'm planning on getting mostly dry rock from Eli, then adding about 20% liverock from the LFS or a fellow can reefer.

It really depends on what you want out of your aquarium.

If I was in your shoes, I would get a piece of the freshest live rock that I could find.
I'm really interested in all the diversity that comes with it - so called "pests" and all.
You can't get that on dead, dried, base rock.

I'll have to talk to Eli. If I could use a few pieces of live rock from my display and then the rest dry rock that'd be awesome. I won't be staring at it too much to see what comes on the new live rock, so that's not too important to me.

I'm a strong proponent of live rock as well. I would never suggest that dry rock doesn't work though. I've seen lots of nice tanks that started with dry rock. It really is just a matter of personal preference. I for one love all the live hitchhikers that you get from live rock. Many people simple do not :-)

The biggest factor next time on a new tank would be cost comparison for me dry rock being a lot cheaper.

I see lots of cyano blooms on tanks using dry rock. I hate cyano so the answer is simple for me.

Sent from my Dungeon using mad Ninja Skillz.

I used live rock from a fellow reefer (Marco Rock) for my DT. I had a minimal cycle, no cyano and very little other algae.

I used 100% dry rock for my frag tank. I had a long cycle, no cyano, but crazy (I mean completely covering the entire tank) amounts of hair algae that lasted 2 months.

You get what you pay for :)

I set up my tanks with 50/50 dry and live rock. This went pretty well, I didn't get cyano blooms but loads of diatoms and initially some green turf. Everything had settled down nicely now though. I think Kien's point about the hitch hikers is a good one. I didn't get sponges, many feather dusters etc. just a few nuisance crabs.

I agree. You can't simulate the amount of benificial things on rock.

Ill never down grade to dry. Not even to avoid the pests. Ive had only three rock crabs in 7 years. Woopie. And as for aptasia and blah blah blah you can get that from any coral too.

Just look closely when you buy. Check the nooks and crannies and deal
With the small chance of pests if they arise.

This is my experience. I'm sure other have had worse and better.

i never realized so many people do not like dry rock. i always assumed you could just seed it, and it would be the same thing.

Wow! No kidding. Maybe I'll just do the 100% LR like I did with my 20gal. No major issues at all. Thanks guys.

I had the same experience when I set up my display tank with dry. It was brutal to deal with.